What we do

Our goal is to provide sage advice and/or conduct research or enquiry related to greenhouse gases and their climatic impact.

This could include topics related to:

The global greenhouse gas budget (emissions to the atmosphere from various sources and removals from the atmosphere) both prior to and through the industrial era

The evolution of NZ’s greenhouse gas emissions since 1990

How different greenhouse gas emissions are compared and aggregated into “CO2 equivalent emissions”

The role of carbon isotope measurements, including radiocarbon measurements, in elucidating budgets of CO2 and methane

The measurement and estimation of methane emissions from ruminant livestock, especially through application of the “SF6 tracer technique”

The carbon neutrality of pastoral farming

The roles of greenhouses gases in climate (the Greenhouse Effect)

We are happy to engage and work cooperatively and collaboratively with other researchers in order to achieve the best outcome for the client.

Who we are

Director Keith Lassey is a research scientist with more than 40 years’ experience, with skills in physics, mathematics and chemistry. Since 1990, Keith’s predominant research interest has been on atmospheric greenhouse gases. He retired as Principal Scientist in Atmospheric Sciences at NIWA in October 2012.

Keith is a graduate of the University of Auckland, NZ (BSc, MSc in physics, mathematics) and McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada (PhD in physics). He has an illustrious career with more than 100 peer-reviewed articles published, mostly on greenhouse gas research.

Keith’s recent research has had a particular focus on atmospheric methane, a greenhouse gas whose atmospheric abundance has grown 2.5-fold over the past three centuries. His research has used carbon isotope data to better understand the processes responsible for this growth in abundance. In collaboration with agricultural scientists, he has led ground-breaking research on the measurement of methane emissions by farmed ruminant livestock in New Zealand, most notably applying and developing the so-called ‘SF6 tracer technique’.

Keith has presented papers on greenhouse gas research at more than 30 international conferences as well as in specialist peer-reviewed journals.

Keith has contributed strongly to reports and publications of the IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change). This effort resulted in sharing the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize awarded to IPCC.

Keith is a member of:

the Royal Society of New Zealand

the American Geophysical Union

the European Geophysical Union

the Editorial Board of the Japan-based IPCC Emission Factor Database

the Editorial Board of the international journal Greenhouse Gas Measurement & Management

the Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Inventory Advisory Panel which advises the NZ Ministry for Primary Industries on changes to the compilation methodology for the national greenhouse gas emissions inventory